Windows 8 market share grows at fastest rate ever

Popularity of latest Microsoft OS significantly picked up last month, as XP's dwindled

Adoption of Windows 8 significantly accelerated in August, with the operating system (OS) upping its market share at the fastest rate since it hit the market, according to new data.

Netmarketshare's August figures show that Windows 8 grabbed 7.41 per cent of the OS market – up from 5.4 per cent in July. Since it launched last October, the OS' market share has crept up slowly, but August's figure has shown its biggest sequential boost over the time it has been on the market.

Since its launch, Windows 8 has been blamed in part for not boosting the PC market and some users were less than impressed with its "Metro" interface – not least as it marked the death of the popular Start button.

This October, an updated Windows 8.1 OS is set to become available, spurring hopes its market share will swell still further. Microsoft claims the new version is a response to user feedback, and the much-missed Start button is set to make a comeback.

Throughout this year, the software giant and its resellers have been keen to encourage users to upgrade from the 12-year-old OS XP in preparation for the end of support next April. Since October last year, the OS' share of the market has shrunk slowly but August saw the sharpest decline yet – a 3.53 percentage point dip to 33.66 per cent of the market.

Netmarketshare's August data also revealed Windows 2000 clung on to a 0.04 per cent market share. Mac OS X 10.8 took 3.42 per cent market share and Linux grabbed 1.52 per cent, but Windows 7 still led the way, taking 45.63 per cent – a figure that has remained relatively steady since last October.